Results 23,261-23,280 of 40,897 for speaker:Simon Coveney

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Action Plan for Housing and Homelessness: Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government (14 Sep 2016)

Simon Coveney: We can talk through that. It is not a problem. In fact, what we are doing on Part 8 is not very radical. It is really about trying to get decisions two weeks earlier. It imposes a stopgap, in that it forces a decision. Part of the problem with Part 8 is that further information is requested repeatedly to try and create more time for consideration, because there might be political issues...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Action Plan for Housing and Homelessness: Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government (14 Sep 2016)

Simon Coveney: It is the Deputy's committee, so it is in her hands. I am only here to answer questions.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Action Plan for Housing and Homelessness: Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government (14 Sep 2016)

Simon Coveney: To be helpful, we do not have the legislation yet. Legally, I cannot give it to the committee until I get the heads of the legislation approved by the Cabinet. I am giving the committee, which is very unusual, a quite detailed briefing note on what will be in the legislation, to ensure I am not doing anything that is inappropriate. I have to get it through the Government. We plan to bring...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Action Plan for Housing and Homelessness: Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government (14 Sep 2016)

Simon Coveney: That is the point I am making-----

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Action Plan for Housing and Homelessness: Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government (14 Sep 2016)

Simon Coveney: No. Once the heads of the legislation are approved by the Cabinet I can e-mail everybody the legislation that afternoon. There is no problem with that. I am asking that we would not have a formal pre-legislative scrutiny stage which often involves the committee inviting experts, witnesses and so forth and delays the process by at least six weeks, perhaps more. Incidentally, we will be...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Action Plan for Housing and Homelessness: Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government (14 Sep 2016)

Simon Coveney: To be clear, I am not seeking a decision from the committee today. I am stating how I am going to proceed. It is up to the committee to decide if it wishes to move with that proposed procedure. In two weeks' time, I hope, we will bring the heads of the Bill to Cabinet to get its approval in principle for it. After that there is a drafting process to produce the heads of the Bill that can...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Action Plan for Housing and Homelessness: Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government (14 Sep 2016)

Simon Coveney: That is a separate issue.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Action Plan for Housing and Homelessness: Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government (14 Sep 2016)

Simon Coveney: We can debate that content if the Deputy wishes.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Action Plan for Housing and Homelessness: Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government (14 Sep 2016)

Simon Coveney: I can deal with these are we go through the pillars. On the broader rental market, we have said we will have new initiatives relating to the broader rental sector before the end of the year. These will try to balance the need to continue to incentivise investment in rental property from a landlord and developer perspective and the need to deal with issues such as security of tenure, more...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Action Plan for Housing and Homelessness: Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government (14 Sep 2016)

Simon Coveney: I do not have an issue with doing that. It would be no problem.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Action Plan for Housing and Homelessness: Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government (14 Sep 2016)

Simon Coveney: I will try to stick to my speaking note and maybe we will get through them in the next few hours. In the action plan, we have set a clear target on homelessness, which is to have no families in hotels for emergency accommodation by mid-2017 except in very limited circumstances. Long-term hotel accommodation for families is not acceptable and we need to end it. We will treble the...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Action Plan for Housing and Homelessness: Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government (14 Sep 2016)

Simon Coveney: There were a lot of questions there.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Action Plan for Housing and Homelessness: Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government (14 Sep 2016)

Simon Coveney: I will wait for Deputy Cowen.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Action Plan for Housing and Homelessness: Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government (14 Sep 2016)

Simon Coveney: We need more shelter accommodation availability for this winter, particularly in Dublin, and we will provide that. It is not easy to get good quality accommodation that can be altered and prepared for people. Last night I visited Brú Aimsir, about which Deputy Ó Broin has raised issues with me previously. It is an impressive hostel facility for people who are homeless. It...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Action Plan for Housing and Homelessness: Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government (14 Sep 2016)

Simon Coveney: Not necessarily. I do not see how the Deputy can say that because HAP has not been around for that length of time.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Action Plan for Housing and Homelessness: Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government (14 Sep 2016)

Simon Coveney: That might be a guesstimate.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Action Plan for Housing and Homelessness: Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government (14 Sep 2016)

Simon Coveney: There is a need for some realism in this conversation. We simply do not have the social housing stock to accommodate everybody's needs. The question is whether we continue to try to accommodate the people who cannot get accommodated by allocation through rent supplement or whether we try to put something in place with a bit more certainty that is more effective than rent supplement. In HAP...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Action Plan for Housing and Homelessness: Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government (14 Sep 2016)

Simon Coveney: There are a number of things. Procurement needs to happen a lot more quickly. We now have an Office of Government Procurement national framework which is close to being finalised. It has attracted a lot of interest from developers who have the capacity to build with rapid build methods and technology. There will be a central database of approved builders that any local authority can...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Action Plan for Housing and Homelessness: Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government (14 Sep 2016)

Simon Coveney: To be helpful, we are told by Dublin City Council that the cost for the 22 in Ballymun is €180,000 per house.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Action Plan for Housing and Homelessness: Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government (14 Sep 2016)

Simon Coveney: Many people have been throwing out figures of €260,000, €280,000 and €300,000. For the record, it is €180,000, which is not that outrageous.